While America debates what role, if any, violent video games played in the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, kind-hearted gamers are using the medium they love to help those most affected.

The Sandy Hook Arcade Center opened last week, thanks to two kind gamers and a lot of community support. According to Polygon, it all started on the day of shooting.

Andrew, who has always had an arcade in the basement of his home, was hosting a December birthday party for his son on the day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The family sent out emails to everyone invited, leaving it to the families to decide if they still wanted to attend.

“Not only did every kid come, but a whole bunch of the neighborhood came too,” he said. “I just knew from that moment that, wow, this is something that’s bigger than us, how kids would enjoy these games and have fun with it. I thought, hey, let’s see if we can make this a bigger sort of thing for the whole town.”

The arcade — which doesn’t charge anything for kids to come in and play with their pinball machines, arcade games or Xbox 360s — is run entirely on donations.

Polygon’s Tom Connors calls it “a place where families can perhaps for a moment forget the tragedy that swept through the town and shocked the nation. A place that allows kids to be kids again.”

AURORA – Police say a man threatened to perform his own modern warfare after he learned Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was sold out at a local Best Buy.

Aurora Police Det. Bob Friel says 31-year-old Lomorin Sar was arrested early Tuesday morning after he threatened the employees at the Best Buy in the 3500 block of North Salida Court.

Witnesses told police Sar became angry and irate with the customer service desk shortly after midnight on Tuesday after they told him the video game he allegedly pre-ordered earlier in the day was no longer in stock.

Witnesses say Sar threatened store workers, asking when they were leaving and allegedly saying he would shoot them in the parking lot. Sar allegedly also told employees he would blow up the store.

So, maybe there’s something to that video-games-lead-to-violent-behaviour theory, after all?

With games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 hitting shelves this week and Grand Theft Auto V on the horizon, prepare for a lot of timely studies and commentaries about how violent video games will rid you of kindness and empathy and turn you into a remorseless monster capable of untold violence.

The most recent example comes from the University of Queensland in Australia, which claims to have learned that “playing violent video games leads players to see themselves, and their opponents, as lacking in core human qualities such as warmth, open-mindedness, and intelligence.”

Gaming has never been better. Consoles, PCs, mobile devices and the web all offer unique and innovative gaming experiences. Here, our geekiest gamers review the latest releases, talk trends and - once in a while - even go analog.